14 Years is a long time. So I thought a little retrospective might be in order, so pardon me for a moment while I look back at the last fourteen years and remember some of the most memorable moments since 2008. A few little caveats before I get started with this list. I didn't include any specific kills or moments from my kill-board, special roams, or in-game PvP conquests in this list. I may do another post about those someday soon. And fourteen years of kills can get rather complicated. I also didn't include this blog, because I'm still writing in it. Just seemed silly to include it. These are moments that stand-out to me for one reason or another. I also wanted the list to touch on different aspects of the game, the community, advocacy, and good natured fun.
So, here are 20 of my most memorable moments from the last 14 years in Eve Online.
#20 - Hauling Thoughts
I made six of these and they aired on the o7 Show in front of thousands of Eve players. Even today I get a chuckle thinking about the confusion these little 25 second videos caused across the Eve community. There is simply nothing else like them. And it gave me a chance to honor those Jack Handy "Deep Thoughts" skits from Saturday Night Live when I was a child growing up.
#19 - Alliance Logos
Over the years I've created more than 1,200 Alliance logos, community logos, podcast logos, streaming logos, you name it and I've probably created the logo for it. Back in the early days I even made Blog Banners, Wallpapers, and more. Doing this work for the community not only makes me happy, it also meant I never had to worry about ISK ever again. But more importantly it gave me a chance to meet and talk with some truly awesome people I might never have met otherwise.
#18 - Svipul
#17 - Providence Wars
A few weeks after starting Eve as a new player I ended up following the Corporation I belonged to, Phoenix Industrial, down into Providence. Over the next few years of the game I would fight multiple wars in the region, defending it and even once invading it as part of the Circle of Two Alliance. Those were amazing years and a great way to learn how to play the game. I fly with some of the best pilots in the game, learned from some incredible FCs, worked with Vile Rat once or twice, fought swarms of Goon Badgers, and sat on Titan bridges for hours at a time. But most importantly I learned that Sov Warfare was just not for me. My experiences in Null Sec, while legendary, only served to push me towards my true passion - Piracy and low sec PvP.
#16 - After Hours Podcast
One of my proudest moments was interviewing my Son on my After Hours Podcast. After Hours was a true passion project for me and I wanted it to be something special, a casual conversation with other members of the community without the Meta gaming, or postering that most podcasts at the time were typically doing. I interviewed some amazing people along the way and had some great conversations with them. As usual I was seemingly way ahead of the curve and certain people got into trouble for agreeing to be on the show. This unfortunately caused problems for them that I never intended and the whole thing got tangled up in internal CCP politics, PR nightmares, and misunderstandings. As always those came down to a lack of communication, but it spoiled the fun for me and I simply stopped doing them.
#15 - The Vagabond Frills
Once upon a time the Stabber hulls in Eve were updated and someone forgot to put the wings on the Vagabond! (I know who it was but I see no reason to drag their name into this) I started a whole thing about this with the help of Seismic Stan, we had a Jita roam, wallpapers, videos, posts, and fundraisers. I even wrote lore posts about what happened to the frills. I even put Victorian Frills around the necks of Twitter avatars! The best part? It was all a simple mistake that had been made when the new hulls were introduced and as soon as the person responsible found out about our campaign - it was fixed. Or at least, that is the story I was told.
#14 - Twitter Hats
You can see them for yourself over here. I started putting hats on my own avatar as a protest against wardrobe costs associated with the Incarna release. Pretty soon other players wanted hats on their avatars as well and before you know it an entire movement was started. As time went on it became larger than a simple protest and eventually transformed into a movement demanding head gear inside of Eve as well. Something we were told back then would be impossible. We'd never see hats inside of Eve. Until we did. It is only impossible because no one has ever done if before.
#13 - Broadcast 4 Reps
#12 - Fanfest
I won't spend a lot of time on this one, since I covered it pretty well in yesterday's post - but going to Fanfest in Iceland completely changed my Eve experience. And I'll go ahead and just lump all player meet-ups into this category. If you haven't been to one I encourage you to go. Fanfest or one closer to home, you won't regret it. It can be life changing.
#11 - The Player Memorial
I'm personally quite proud of my advocacy over the years for an in-game player memorial. And while I got chastised quite brutally once for saying so, that hasn't changed my opinion. I never claimed to have invented the idea, all I did was advocate for it rather often and rather loudly. I know other people had the idea before me and others had it after me, that's how these things work. All I know is that we have one now and I'm proud to have had a part to play in making it happen. I was just there on my alt a few weeks ago to pay my respects once again and drop another few cans for more lost friends.
#10 - DeathRaces
In August 2010 I held my very first player event inside of Eve. A DeathRace from one side of Providence to the other. You can read some of the history here if you are interested. I held four DeathRaces over the years and the last one had over 400 entrants compete. The best part of these events was the learning experience and the knowledge that eventually led to the greatest player run in-game events in Eve Online - the annual Stay Frosty FF4A!
#9 - Alliance Tournament 14
The upcoming Alliance Tournament will be my seventh Alliance Tournament. The first match we fly in will mark my 24th AT match, which is a lot of history. But our run in AT14 remains our best run to date and ABA finished 11th in that tournament. We were one victory short of entering the finals. So close. We won matches against Methodical Alliance, Shadow Cartel, Spectre Fleet, and Snuffed Out - losing to Villore Accords and Phoebe Freeport. The match against Shadow Cartel probably remains one of the most bet on matches in AT history (since you can't do that anymore). Someday we may exceed this run and finally make it into the finals, but it will be hard to replicate the excitement and thrill of that year.
If you know anything at all about me it should be the the fact that I've been tirelessly working to advocate for the rights of Eve fan artists and the pitiful state of the Eve Store for literally fourteen years now. I've banged my head against this specific wall for a long time and I have the Cease and Desist letters to prove it. I've helped other artists achieve official status and recently I decided it was time to step up and do it myself as well. I'm quite proud of the current Rixx Store and the work that is for sale there. I take a great deal of pride in it, that it works, that it offers reasonable international shipping, and that my customers are pleased with the products I offer. It is a big deal. And I have big plans for it as time goes on. It has been a long road getting here. Thanks again for those people at CCP who helped me finally achieve this goal. Thank you.
#7 - Warp Core Stabs
Y'know, people used to make fun of me for this.
#6 - Dumb Ways to Die
With over a million views now this remains one of my most cherished memories in Eve. The concept was mine but Sindel took it and ran with it to create a truly memorable parody song. My only regret is I wish I could re-do the animation and graphics, but those were different days back then and I did what I could to finish it on time under a considerable crunch. But the animation serves to help make this piece what it is and that can't be understated. Something special.
#5 - Steel City Eve
We enjoyed Fanfest and other events so much we decided to have one at our house every year! This plan obviously got put aside because of Covid, but this past Summer we held the first one since 2019 and a bunch of weirdoes showed up to hang out with us for the day. How amazing is that? From Germany, Oregon, Arizona, Indiana, New York City, and points everywhere in-between. Amazing. Can't wait for next year.
#4 - Spaceship Posters
In 2014 I started making posters of Eve spaceships. Mostly I wanted to learn some new techniques and practice skills that had been dormant for a long time. I didn't plan on them becoming so popular and gaining so much attention. But I ended up working with CCP for months on a project that started out as a new Eve Store launch and ended up being eight posters being sold by QMx. Despite those issues we sold thousands of posters, but the lessons I learned in this project formed the determination I had to do it better if I ever got the chance. Signing autographs on my own posters at Harpa during the 2015 Fanfest remains one of the best memories I have.
#3 - World War Bee
I once set out to expose a tyrant. I determined to learn more about this "meta" game inside of Eve Online by focusing on that idea exclusively. A tremendous amount of fortunate timing, weird events, and happenstance occurred that brought that idea to reality and WWB was the result. I would never, ever take sole credit for something that truly was breathtakingly wild, wide, and variable. So much had to happen to make this work and yet one day I decided to do it and the next it was happening. You can lump this into Vagabond Frills, WCS, Hats, Events, Stores, and countless other things that I determined to make happen and that eventually did happen. Those of you who are smart are already sensing a trend here. Those of you who are truly smart, possibly genius level, might even start to wonder if WWB was the end of that effort. And then you might realize that my stated goal has been achieved. Huh. Makes you wonder doesn't it?
#2 - The Frigate Free For Alls
The annual Stay Frosty ABA FF4A events have become the stuff of legend. Every year they get bigger and better, records topple, and more and more people experience the thrill of PvP. This past springs event was the biggest ever recorded and set new records across the board. 20,000 fully fitted Frigates!! That's insane.
#1 - Stay Frosty and ABA
How could it not be number one? My pride and joy, the greatest group of pirates Eve has ever seen. In May of next year we will be celebrating our 10th year! We'll hold the 9th FF4A!! We'll soon be competing in our 7th Alliance Tournament! Nearly 200k kills total, almost 100k of which are SOLO! Nine plus years and almost a 50/50 split between small gang and solo kills, unheard of! I could go on and on listing all of the amazing achievements that SF/ABA have been responsible for. But the most important one for me is the thousands of players that have joined us over the last decade, those that have stayed and those that have gone on to other adventures. All of whom are part of the SF family and a source of pride for me personally.
Former SF/ABA pilots are all over New Eden and that is incredible to me. It took a long time to figure out my place in this universe, but once I found it I realized that it had been there all along - the players, the people, the community of Eve. That's why I keep playing and why I log on almost every single day. Why I continue to write, make art, and push the envelope. For the community.
Everything on this list I did to help make Eve better. In small ways and sometimes in bigger ways, but always with the goal to bring content, fun, adventure, and opportunity to this world of ours. I hope that I have achieved that goal in whatever way I can. I will continue to do so as long as I can.
Onward & Upward. Together.